IMO 2020: Another Owner Opts for Scrubber Retrofits

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday May 16, 2018

Blystad Group, through its UK-based subsidiary Songa Shipmanagement, has chosen to fit exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers) to 14 of its vessels.

The retrofits will take place commencing in the late summer 2018 through the end of 2020.

The order comes with an option to retrofit five further vessels.

The scrubbers themselves will be supplied by CR Ocean Engineering (CROE), who singled out the small size of its units as being suitable for retrofit, as well as newbuilds.

While the uptake of scrubbers to date has been lower than official estimates previously predicted, many in the industry continue to extol the commercial benefits of the technology as it will allow vessels to continue to burn cheaper HSFO bunkers when the global 0.50% sulfur cap comes into force from January 1, 2020.

Dr. R. Vis, Director, Viswa Lab, recently predicted there will eventually be surge in interest in scrubbers akin to a stampede of wildebeest in Serengeti Park.